"ALL OUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 8443, 10 August 1911, Page 2

"ALL OUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET."

The London "Daily Telegraph," commenting on the recent Navy manoeuvres, speaks with refreshing plainness. "We have (it says) full faith in tlie efficiency of the Navy. The ships including the ten Dreadnoughts, are great. "The men"—including the officers— "are splendid." There is no doubt about the Fleet if only we can keep enough of it afloat and beat down the attack which ignorant fanatics and flippant opportunists are now directing once more against naval sufficiency.. We have often sa id it ought to be }impossible for any politician, -no matter to what party or section belonging, to open his mouth in public life if he is unsound: upon the Navy. , . Were it not for the vessels of' all. classes now on manoeuvres, we should be ' 'the con-script-appendage to ii stronger Power." Our honour, powers and independence would be beaten into the earth. There would be no last remedy against shame such as'other peoples have survived, for we should have to submit or starve. Our trade would be stopped, and our food supply cut off. A vast indemnity would be imposed upon us, and it is not so certain that old age -pensions, would continue to be paid. No other State that the world has seen has existed in similar circumstances. We have all our eggs in one basket. That basket is the Navy. To other nation^—above all to -Germany—sea-power may be more or less desirable, but they could perfectly well exist without it, and could make a triumphant fight for national existence, and even for national supremacy, whatever happened at sea. But we alone have staked all upon the Navy. We have no resource behind it, or apart from it. As the late Laureate said: "The Fleet of 'England is her all in all." If we make a main mistake in that sphere, with regard either to the efficiency or to the sufficiency of the Navy, the Empire f would terminate, and the glorious history of this country as a .Great Power would come to an end.